Volume 86 — United States Reports

The capital was to consist of various stocks, bonds, and securities specified, then belonging to the State; the same being in fact all the stocks, bonds, and securities which the State owned. The bank thus belonged to the State. The president and directors were to be elected by the legislature, and were made a corporation and body politic.

This was a motion made on behalf of the plaintiff in error for a certiorari upon suggestion of a diminution of a record coming on error from the Circuit Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas. The diminution alleged was that the clerk of the court below had not appended to the transcript his certificate that the transcript contained the whole record.

The contract was fulfilled, and a balance found due upon it to Stowe. The government having neglected to pay a portion of this balance, Stowe, at the request of one White, executed a power of attorney — in blank as respected the name of the attorney — to get the balance yet claimed as due.

A statute of June 2d, 1862,* thus enacts: “It shall be the duty of the Secretary of War, Secretary of the Navy, &c., to cause and require every contract made by them severally on behalf of the government, or by their officers under them appointed, to be reduced to writing, and signed by the contracting parties with their names at the end thereof.” This statute being in force, Salomon entered into a written contract, on the 28th of July, 3864, with the quartermaster’s…

Held: That the act of Congress did vest him, through *21 the process of estoppel, with a full title, and that this title had passed by his conveyance, though but a quit-claim, to D.; and, of course, that this subsequent deed (the one to F.) passed nothing. . Appeal from the Circuit Court for the District of Minnesota.

<p>1. Although a bank by statute, or the trustees, on the expiration thereof, ■who liquidate its affairs, may be deprived of power to take or hold real estate, this does not prevent either’s making an arrangement through the medium of a trustee, by which, without ever having a legal title, control, or ownership of such estate, they yet secure a debt for which they bad a lien on such estate, and have the estate sold so as to pay the debt.</p> <p>2. A bill against a trustee for an account dismissed on a case stated.</p>

Held: .that the notice did not amount to an agreement to furnish the amount of supplies specified, and therefore that the contractor could not recover the profits which he would have made had the freights withheld been furnished to him.

About nine o’clock in the eveniug of the 29th of November, 1869, heading east by north half north, the steam propeller Wenona was on her course down Lake Erie; her rate about ten miles an hour. The evening was somewhat dark and it was raining. There was a little mist on the water, but not enough to make what is called a fog. The wind was south, or south by east.

' The Logansport Gaslight and Coke Company brought an action in the court below, against Alfred Knowles, on a judgment recovered by it against the said Knowles and one Thomas Harvey, in the Circuit Court for Cass County, Indiana. The defence to the action now brought was that that court did not have jurisdiction of the person of the defendant. The record of the former judgment was produced on the trial and was somewhat anomalous.

The trustees of the Sixth Presbyterian Church, in the city of Washington, instituted proceedings before the marshal and a jury of the District of Columbia against the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Company, to recover from it damages which the church had sustained by reasou of the road of the company having been run through a street in front of their church.

<p>Error to the Circuit Court for the Eastern District of Virginia; in which court Littleton Omohundro, a citizen of Ohio, sued Richard Cooper, a citizen of Virginia, executor of Silas Omohundro (which said Silas was in his lifetime a citizen of the same State), to recover certain advances which the plaintiff-, the said Littleton, who was the son of the said Silas, the defendant’s testator, had made (as the evidence tended to show, though this fact was not in any way shown by the pleadings), during the rebellion, and while funds could not- be transmitted from Virginia to Ohio for the said Silas, his father.</p> <p>The said Silas, the decedent, though living in Virginia, had been building a house in Ohio, for his wife (or reputed wife) and children, who resided there, and where he was in the habit of visiting them till the rebellion broke out. He died in 1864.</p> <p>The court gave judgment for the plaintiff, and the defendant brought the case here on error.</p>

<p>Error to the Circuit Court for the Northern District of Illinois.</p>

On motion to dismiss, for want of jurisdiction, an appeal in admiralty from the Circuit Court for the District of Maryland. The act of March 3d, 1803,* amendatory of the Judiciary Act, enacts that “from all final decrees” rendered in any Circuit Court in any cases of admiralty, “ where the matter in dispute, exclusive of costs, shall exceed the sum or value of $2000,” an appeal shall be allowed to this court.

Held: that the fact that she was finally raised, repaired, and put in good condition, was no defence to a claim for a total loss; — especially as it did not appear at whose instance or at what cost thi-s was done ; nor by what right those in possession of her held her; and it not being either alleged or proved that she had been tendered back to her original owners.

” • This statute being in force, Gay, as indorsee of three several inland bills of exchange, drawn or accepted by one Morgan, iu his life, sued his executor upon them. Two of the bills were indorsed by the payees, and the third by its payee and by other indorsers.

Held: that there was no violation of the act by the commissioners in what they had done.

Held: that the bill could not he sustained, that C. (the purchaser from the executors), and E. (the co-trustee with D.), were indispensable parties and that if it was intended to conclude E. (in case he did not get his money from his partners) from proceeding on the mortgage given to him to secure its payment and raising anew the question of the validity of the sale of the real estate to 0., and of that by him to D. and…

Rees, a citizen of Illinois, being owner of certain bonds issued under authority of an act of the legislature of the State of Wisconsin, by the city of Watertown, in that State, to the Watertown and Madison Railroad Company, and by the company sold for its benefit, brought suit in the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Wisconsin, against the city, and, in 1867, recovered two judgments for about $10,000.

Held: That the damages were to be equally divided between the two vessels, as, being both in fault, the steamer in moving in such a place at so rapid a rate in so dense a fog, the bark for her violation of the act of Congress for preventing collisions at sea (identical in this respect with the British Merchants’ Shipping Act), which requires, in its “Buies concerning Bog Signals,” that “sailing vessels under way shall use…

Carpenter brought ejectment against Rannels in one of the Circuit Courts of Missouri to recover possession of two hundred arpents or acres of land in the county of St. Louis, located under a New Madrid certificate of relocation, No. 511, which was issued under an act of Congress of February 17th, 1815,* and acts supplementary thereto, in lieu of lands in New Madrid County, which had been injured by earthquakes, and upon which certificate a patent issued, dated March 30th,…

Ephraim Sawyer filed a bill in the court below against Henry Prickett and wife, to foreclose a mortgage given by them, on the 1st of September, 1857, to the Fox River Valley Railroad Company, to secure the payment of a note for $2000 at ten years from its date, and by the company assigned to him, the complainant.

Held: both on the apparent intent of this particular will, as seen on reading the dispositions in the different clauses to all the children, to give a full estate where the child *168 of the testator had a child or children, and on the technical rules about vested and contingent remainders applicable to the clause relating to that share given to the daughter, that the grandson, E., took a vested remainder in the city…

” These provisions of law being in force, the steamer Rio Grande, owned, as was alleged, by persons in Mexico, being in the port of Mobile, in the Southern District of Alabama, certain material-men, on the 26th of November, 1867, filed separate libels against her in the District Court- for the said district. The libels, with their numbers and the names of the libellants on the docket, were thus: No. 221. William Otis, for......$1,508 00 No. 222.

Held: notwithstanding this provision that the “ fundamental principle” above spoken of, was of so pervading a character, that although these sections, while within the six miles limit, had been offered at public sale at $2.50 and refused, they were not open to private entry now that by the change of location they were without that limit, until they had been offered for public sale at $1.2-5 per acre, and had been left…

That when any revenue officer . . . shall neglect or refuse to pay into-the treasury tbe sum or balance reported to be due to the United States upon the adjustment of his accounts, it shall be the dutj' of the comptroller to institute suit for the recovery of the same, adding to the sum stated to be due, on such account, the commissions of the delinquent, which shall be forfeited in every instance where suit is commenced and judgment obtained. “ Section 2.

Held: that such first trial was not a “ final trial ” within the meaning of the act of Congress; the party seeking to remove the case having demanded and having got leave to have a second trial under the said statute of the State.

The United States brought an action of debt against The Dollar Savings Bank, in the court below, to recover certain internal revenue taxes, which the declaration alleged were due from it to the government.

Held: to determine whether the county should subscribe for stock of the railroad company, to the amount of $75,000, to be paid for with the bonds of the county, provided the railroad should be so located and constructed through, or within one-half mile of, the town of Hennepin. The election was held, and it resulted in favor of'the subscription.

Held: that it was impossible to separate the receipt for the one hundred and nineteen bonds from the arrangement by which B. gave up his own land to A., and that this being so, A. had made such fraudulent misrepresentations to B about the value and character of the bonds that for this reason, if for no other, he could not ask the aid of equity to compel an execution of the alleged trust.

Appeals from the Court of Claims. Caldwell sued the TJuited States to recover damages for tbe breach of a transportation contract, dated March 12th, 1866; the government then being at war with Western Indians.

In point of fact the consideration of this deed was one of gold coin, or based on the value of coin; that is to say, $6500 were paid in gold coin when the deed was made, and an agreement given to pay “on the 25th of December, 1867, an amount of legal currency of the United States sufficient to .purchase $6890 of the present gold coin of the United States;'’ this $6890 being the balance ($6500) of the $13,000 consideration-money, with interest added to the day of pay-, meat.

On motion to dismiss an appeal from the Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York, affirming a decree of the District Court in bankruptcy, forever discharging, in the' usual way, two persons, partners in trade, from payment of all debts and claims against them, &c., including a debt of one Coit, to a greater amount than.$2000.

Held: and what works or papers have you written on chemistry? “A. I studied chemistry with Wohler, in Cassel, Germany, and with Professor Magnus, in Berlin, during 1833, 1834, and 1835. From 1835 to the present time I have been engaged as professional analytical chemist.

On motion, by Mr. J. Hubley Ashton, for a supersedeas to the Supreme Court of Colorado Territory and the District Court in and for the county of Arapabo in that Territory.

I have assumed that it was the words, “and in reference to the fact whether such knowledge,” &c. * This view was taken by the Circuit Court for the northern District of New York in Russell v. Dodge. * Curtis, § 221. * Booth v. Kennard, 1 Hurlstone & Norman, 527; Stevens v. Keating, 2 Webster’s Patent Cases, 172; Curtis, § 258. * Moffitt v. Gaar, 1 Fisher, 613. † Act of 1836, § 15; Act of 1839, § 7; 16 Stat. at Large, 208, § 61. ‡ Tyler v. Boston, 7 Wallace, 327. * Tyler v.…

Held: assuming this draft to be void, that the party making the contract could reject the security and recover the money or value which he advanced on receiving it. It was held further, that the right of action to recover this money passed to the Oneida Bank upon the transfer of the certificate to them. The plaintiff recovered the money advanced to the bank upon the illegal certificate.

On certificate of division in opinion from the Southern District of New York.

, approved June 3d, 1864,* and having its banking-house and carrying on its operations of discount and deposit in the town of South Chicago, Cook County, Illinois — filed a bill against one Tappan, collector of county and municipal taxes, in the said town of South Chicago, Cook County, to enjoin his collection of such taxes upon any of the shares of stock in the said bank, assessed under a statute of Illinois, passed June 13th, 1867.

On petition by J. S. Robinson, an attorney at law, fo’r mandamus to the judge of the District Court for the Western District of Arkansas, the case being thus: On the 16th of July, 1873, the grand jury of the Western District of Arkansas reported to the District Court of the United States for the district, then in session at Fort Smith, that in a case in which a certain Nash was a party, they had made' every effort in their power to have a witness by the name of Silas…

[On Appeal.] Before the application for a mandamus was made to this court, as above reported, the petitioner, Robinson, had appealed from the order of the District Court disbarring him. The record being filed, he moved that the case be advanced on the calendar for hearing.

Representing to the assessor and collector of his district that he wished to “ transport” it from his factory to a bonded warehouse, Class B, in New York, lie got permission to do so, on executing the usual transportation bond with surety.* He did accordingly execute such bond, in the penalty of $10,000, with one Ryan and another as his sureties.

of the United States, in the year just named, were excluded from her limits. On the 1st of May, 1862, however, the government troops had captured and occupied the city of New Orleans, and held military possession of it and of certain small parts of the State which had submitted themselves to the lawful authority. But everything was unsettled and insecure.

Held: and we think correctly, that this expression meant subject to whatever law the State legislature might think fit to pass. On the 17th of December, 1859, the legislature did pass an act, vacating the offices of all “the professors, tutors, and teachers connected in any manner with the university,” and providing also that a new board of curators should be elected in the place of the existing board.

Held: on a suit upon a policy of insurance on the life of the person killed, which made it a condition of paying the sum assured that the contract should not extend to a case of death caused by “ duelling, fighting, or other breach of the law on the part of the assured, or by his wilfully exposing himself to any unnecessary danger or peril” — that this death was within the condition ; and that the leap from the sulky and…

Held: that although the seed of that crop had not yet been sown, a purchaser of the land at sheriff’s sale could charge as trustee of it for him, a person to whom the tenant had transferred the crop, after it had grown and was gathered, such purchaser having taken with notice of the landlord’s mortgage.

Held: That the understanding of the parties might be shown from the nature of the transaction, and the attendant circumstances, a? satisfactorily as from the language used; and particularly that it might be shown from the length of time during which the contracts had to run before maturing; and that accordingly when bonds of a railroad company were issued in May, 1862, payable at dates varying from seven to thirteen years…

Joseph Dautel sued in the court below, I. M. Nunez and others, trading in partnership as I. M. Nunez & Co. The action was assumpsit, and the suit was brought on the 10th of September, 1870. The declaration contained two counts. The first was upon an instrument described as a due bill, whereby the defendants acknowledged to be due and promised to pay to the plaintiff the sum of $1619.66. The second count claimed the same amount upon an account stated.

Branch, a cotton planter, in Desha County, Arkansas, opened an account with George Mc-Gregor, Nathan Alio way, and James Bankhead, of New Orleans, partners, under the name of McGregor, Alloway & Co., commission merchants, and in that and subsequent years became largely indebted to them for advances and supplies. In 1854 he executed to them an open mortgage on his plantation and slaves to secure all balance of indebtedness, whatever it might be from time to time.

Alfred Williams, of Louisiana, a person with no property, married in 1842 Catharine Stewart, the possessor of a large estate there. Three children were the fruit of the marriage. The wife died in 1854; the husband in 1863. During Mrs. Williams’s life her husband managed her property.

The United States brought suit in the court below against Ann Osborne, administratrix of Joseph Osborne, deceased, upon a distillers bond, executed by Samuel McMillan as principal, and by Robert Fletcher and the decedent., tbe said Joseph Osborne, as sureties, in pursuance of the provisions of the seventh section of the act of July 20th, 1868,* “Imposing taxes on distilled spirits, and for other purposes.” This section enacts: “That every distiller shall, on filing his…

The Constitution ordains as follows: “No State shall without the consent of Congress lay any duty on tonnage. “ Congress shall have power to regulate commerce between the States.” With these provisions of the Constitution in force, the legislature of Texas, by an act of August 13th, 1870, enacted that every vessel arriving at the quarantine station of any town on the coast of Texas, should pay $5 for the first hundred tons, and one and a half cents for each additional ton.

Held: being, to be considered together as forming one.

United States v. Cook, 86 U.S. (19 Wall.) 591 (1873), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that Indian tribes do not own the land their reservations are on, the land is owned by the United States and the Indians only have a right to occupy the land. They may not cut and sell timber merely for the purpose of selling timber, they may only sell timber that was cut incidental to another purpose. The government has a right to take action to recover damages for timber sold illegally from that land.

An act of Congress, passed June 22d, 1860,* provided for the adjustment of land claims in Louisiana, emanating from foreign governments prior to the cession of the region to the United States.

An act of May 29th, 1880,* authorized “the appointment of a Solicitor of the Treasury,” prescribed his duties, &c.; and enacted, among other things, that— “ The said solicitor shall have charge of all lands and other property which have been or shall be assigned, set off, or conveyed to the United States in payment of debts; . . . and to sell and dispose of lands assigned or set off to the United States in payment of debts.” An act of March 3d, 1863, entitled “An act to…

” This statute being in force, and Ben Holladay being, as it seemed, owner in fee of a piece of land there, he and his wife executed a power of attorney to one Hughes to sell it. The power ran thus: “ Know all men, &c., that we, Ben Holladay and JV.

This suit was part of a litigation of twenty-five years’ standing, which was now in this court for the fourth time. The controversy arose out of the use by the defendants below of an improvement in the steam-engine known as the Sickles cut-off, an apparatus for lifting and tripping the valves of steam-engines, and also an improved water reservoir and plunger, for which E. E. Sickles, one of the plaintiff's, had, on the 20th May, 1842, received a patent.

Held: as already stated, that there could be no effectual appropriation of the land, located under a New Madrid certificate until the survey made by the officer of the government was returned to the recorder- of land titles.

<p>1. Whether the legislature of a State has authority under the constitution of the State to pass a particular statute, what is the true interpretation of any statute passed by it for a purpose specified, and what acts will be justified under the statute, are matters which lie exclusively within the determination of the highest court of the.State.</p> <p>2. Statutes which allow gaming are to bo construed strictly.</p>

Fogarty sued the Great Western Insurance Company on a policy of marine insurance and recovered a judgment for $2611.95 and costs. The policy was an open one, and the indorsement procured by the plaintiff on it was of insurance for $2250, on machinery on hoard the bark Ella Adele, at and from New York to Havana, free from particular average.

• This was a contest between two pre-emption claimants, Warren, on the one hand, and the representatives of Yan Brunt, deceased, on the other, for the ownership of the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter, section 13, township 108 N., R. 27 W. (forty acres), in the State of Minnesota. These last had the legal title under a patent from the United States, issued upon the claim of Van Brunt.

This was a suit in chancery brought by Heine and others, holders of bonds issued by what is called the board of levee commissioners of the levee district for the parishes of Carroll .and Madison of the State of Louisiana. The board thus described was made a quasi corporation by the legislature of Louisiana, with authority to issue the bonds and provide for the payment of interest and principal by taxes levied upon the .real and personal property within the district.

In this case, which came here on error to the Supreme .Court of the Territory of Idaho, the board of commissioners of Boise County and B. T. Davis, plaintiffs in error, asked that a writ might issue from this court commanding the restoration of the said Davis to the office of assessor and tax collector .of Bo.ise County for the .reason, as was alleged, that he had :bee.n ousted from that office by virtue of a writ issued upon the judgment in the court below, after the…

The constitution of Michigan (adopted A.D. 1850) thus ordains: “Article VI, § 32. No person shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. “Article XIV, § 6.